Various environmental and natural occurrences result in blemishes and wrinkles to human skin. For example, sun exposure, chronic irritation due to many different causes, and neglect may all cause skin problems. Recent advances in laser and chemical treatments have been successful in improving the appearance of the treated skin but these methods are rather labor intensive and can be traumatic.
One approach by medical practitioners includes the use of micro-dermabrasion techniques to treat skin blemishes. Although quite effective in certain applications, this technique can be risky and requires specially licensed operators.
Another approach by medical and cosmetic practitioners includes the use of adhesive-type tape applied to the patient's skin so that when the tape is removed the tape also removes an upper portion of the skin. This form of procedure is referred to as barrier disruption. Some analyses have suggested that barrier disruption by cellophane tape stripping triggers a cascade of biochemical activity which serves to “turn over” structural proteins that constitute human skin. For example, such tape stripping may stimulate the production of keratins 6,16,17 and reduce the mount of keratins 5 and 14, while also prematurely expressing involucrin. Yet another analysis suggests that tape stripping increases the rate of transepidermal water loss by 100 times the normal rate. In yet another analysis, tape stripping is suggested as having a regulatory effect upon fatty acid transport proteins and fatty acyl CoA synthase.
This data suggests that biochemical activity occurs following tape stripping which may be related to long term skin restructuring. An immediate consequence is the removal of redundant scale, plaques, and comedones which results in a rejuvenated appearance.
Recently, a lot of effort of dermatologists and skin care specialists has been focused on developing methods for the prevention and treatment of photo-aging skin. Methods for preventing photo aging include sun protection and avoidance and the use of anti-oxidants in diet and applied topically to the skin.
Methods of treating sun damaged or aging skin include drug treatments with retinoids, anti-oxidants, biologicals and other compositions and treatments using devices or materials such as ablative treatments, which removes tissue from the surface of the skin through to the epidermis and in some cases to the dermis layers of the skin, non-ablative treatments, which include dermal stimulation, and minimally ablative treatments which removes tissue from the stratum corneum layer of skin. Some examples of aggressive ablative methods that are used to even out skin color, lines and remove pre-cancerous lesions by removing portions of the epidermis and/or dermis include dermabrasion using a dermabrader, a rapidly rotating device is used to remove the upper layers of the skin, laser abrasion or laser resurfacing using either CO2 laser or an erbium YAG laser, which burns the outer layer of the skin with a controlled second degree burn, or phenol or trichloroacetic acid peels. Each of these aggressive ablative methods results in skin damage. With dermabrasion and laser abrasion, the skin will remain red or pink for weeks to months, with peels depending upon the type of peel the skin will look red for one week to months.
Less aggressive methods for superficial exfoliation have been developed which include superficial chemical peels, which use alpha hydroxyacids found in fruits and other foods and microdermabrasion which consist of a machine which blasts the skin with very fine particulate matter. These less aggressive methods also result in skin redness and require multiple methods.